Today was a reminder that we are all connected, like it or not, deny it or not. A reminder that the mindset that every man/woman should be only out for him/herself cannot work. That who we have sex with effects more than just the engaged parties. That how we raise the kids from those encounters effects more than our household. That how we treat our neighbor’s effect more than our neighborhood. That how we combat a system meant for many of us to fail effects more than the people we say we are fighting for.
You wouldn’t say that my city should burn or deserves to burn if you were the mother who had to endure watching her house burn to ashes wondering where she will live next.

You wouldn’t dismiss Freddie Gray as deserving to die because he ran if he was your son or your brother or your father. You wouldn’t simply dismiss the kids who ran wild as criminals and thugs if you observed their lives before the incidents. If you observed the neglect, unfair targeting, and lack of love they’d been enduring since they were born. You wouldn’t be ok with businesses that have nothing to do with the incident being burnt to the ground if you were one of the employees who’s sole salary was helping feed and house a family of 5 children. And now you face eviction because your job was eviscerated with the property. I see a lot of people with a lot of dismissive comments about people’s plights from afar. You should probably keep them to yourself being that you aren’t in the position this lady who just lost her home behind me is in. You’d be too busy working on how to feed your hungry sons.

The concept of intentional collateral damage on any level always reveals a loss of connection with God and our overall purpose on this earth. When hurt people hurt people, everybody goes to hell. If you aren’t trying to be a solution, your criticism is a waste of space in the universe.